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This image from video provided by SpaceX shows the company's spacesuit in Elon Musk's red Tesla sports car which was launched into space during the first test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. (SpaceX via AP)

This image from video provided by SpaceX shows the company's spacesuit in Elon Musk's red Tesla sports car which was launched into space during the first test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. (SpaceX via AP)

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This still image taken from a SpaceX livestream video shows "Starman" sitting in SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla roadster after the Falcon Heavy rocket delivered it into orbit around the Earth on February 2, 2018. (HO/AFP/Getty Images)

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket sits on launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center as it is prepared for tomorrow's lift-off on February 5, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket, which is the most powerful rocket in the world, is scheduled to make its maiden flight between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. tomorrow. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on February 6, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket is the most powerful rocket in the world and is carrying a Tesla Roadster into orbit. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The crowd cheers at Playalinda Beach in the Canaveral National Seashore, just north of the Kennedy Space Center, during the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. Playalinda is one of closest public viewing spots to see the launch, about 3 miles from the SpaceX launchpad 39A. (Joe Burbank /Orlando Sentinel via AP)

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on February 6, 2018, on its demonstration mission. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on February 6, 2018, on its demonstration mission. (JIM WATSONJIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Crowds of people, reminiscent of shuttle launch days, line the beaches of Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach to watch the launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018, and the return of the rocket's boosters landing at Landing Zone 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket flies into space from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on February 6, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket is the most powerful rocket in the world and is carrying a Tesla Roadster into orbit. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Crowds on the beach in Cape Canaveral watch two of the three boosters from the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018, from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A land moments apart at Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)

Two of the boosters land at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station after the launch of SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on February 6, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket is the most powerful rocket in the world and is carrying a Tesla Roadster into orbit. (Raedle/Getty Images)

The good news is that the Martians are probably less at risk of having an innovative Earthling’s fancy four-wheeler landing on their heads, as it appears the Roadster’s orbit will be further than Mars than planned.

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The red Roadster — the production version of which will be, according to Musk, the fastest street-legal car in history if and when it hits the market — is expected to stay in orbit around the Sun for “several hundred million years” and possibly more than a billion, a spokesman for SpaceX has said. The vehicle would at times “come extremely close to Mars,” spokesman John Taylor said before the Falcon Heavy launch.

Musk had told reporters there was a “tiny, tiny” chance the car — with an astronaut-suited mannequin in the driver’s seat — could strike the Red Planet.

The asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and contains most of the asteroids in the solar system, where they rotate around the sun.

With the new flight path, a Roadster crash into Mars is looking less likely, but Musk and SpaceX have yet to say whether the hot-rod Tesla is at risk of collision with any other objects, possibly including a cosmic fire truck on an alien space-highway.

Meanwhile, the Falcon Heavy launch may have gone some way toward healing a rift between Musk and President Donald Trump, after Musk in June withdrew from a White House advisory role following Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord.

“Congratulations @ElonMusk and @SpaceX on the successful #FalconHeavy launch,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “This achievement, along with @NASA’s commercial and international partners, continues to show American ingenuity at its best!”

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, a rival rocket man to Musk, had on Monday tweeted support for SpaceX, while touting his own space-flight company via hashtags of its name and its Latin motto that translates to “step by step, ferociously.”

Ethan Baron is a business reporter at The Mercury News, and a native of Silicon Valley before it was Silicon Valley. Baron has worked as a reporter, columnist, editor and photographer in newspapers and magazines for 25 years, covering business, politics, social issues, crime, the environment, outdoor sports, war and humanitarian crises.